time to achieve a
coherent whole,
both through the choice of entries
and their translations.
These two aims
reflect the fact that such a dictionary is rather a lexicon
than a simple dictionary in its narrow meaning, and is addressed to
two categories
of reader.

In the first place
it is addressed to students,
by whom idiomatic phrases may often be misconstrued or
mistranslated, representing at least a barrier
to achieving ease with the use of idiomatic, or natural English, and
at worst, costly mistakes
in school
or universityexaminations.

A reference book
of this kind is destined to provide a complementary tool for
student’s studies.
Coming across an English idiom he doesn’t know, he can refer to this
lexicon and hopefully, as the idioms are placed within a context,
find a reliable translation.

The second category
of reader is any citizen of the world today who, whether a student
or not, finds himself more and more often in the situation of having
to speak a language other than his mother tongue. And this person
will find a dictionary with illustrations,
words
and phrases - a modern engravings of technological society;
a book which he wants to carry with him (hence it must have a
compact format), to leaf through and also to read, dipping into it
less to verify a word than to become impregnated with a culture.
The idioms are selected both for their occurrence in the language
and for their “cultural reflection”.

The specific sense
in which such a book is a lexicon of idioms is the sense in which it
deals with those forms of expression, grammatical
construction,
phrase and phraseology which are peculiar to a language and
established in approved usage, which often have a signification,
or meaning,
other than the grammatical or logical one which is indicated
by the words themselves. A natural consequence of this is that study
of idioms will also illuminate the character,
properties
and genius
of the language and hence the character and manner of expression
which is peculiar to the users of it.

Examples are
included to embrace, at one end of the spectrum,
idioms which are, in both languages of each version,
almost word for word translations of each other (perhaps
representing human idiom), while at the other end, phrases which at
first sight seem to bear little resemblance
to one another yet, on consideration, can be found to express ideas
relating to their subject matter
which could be said to be peculiar to the modes of expression found,
respectively, in usage of both languages.